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July 20, 2008Renegade Craft Fair, San Francisco Thank you to many, many people who came out to visit us at the Renegade Craft Faor in San Francisco. It was a gorgeous location on the water and our fellow vendors were top notch. It’s always fun to meet customers in person and we love coming away having made so many new friends. You can see more of our photos in our Flickr set. July 2, 2008Renegade Craft Fair, San Francisco We’re thrilled to be participating in the first annual Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco! For our friends in the Bay Area, please mark your calendars for July 12 and 13. Mahar Drygoods will be setting up shop along with more than 200 other vendors in the Fort Mason Festival Pavillion - a fantastic indoor location right on the water (literally! on a pier). Located between Fisherman’s Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Mason Center offers easy access by MUNI and BART. We can’t wait to see you there - please stop by and say hello.  June 17, 2008June 14, 2008Little Laundress Workshop: Class PhotosThank you to all of the lovely ladies who attended Robert’s Little Laundress Workshop this afternoon! We had a wonderful time initiating Sweetpeas’ new bunglow classrooom with cupcakes and crafting. You’ll see from the photos below the beautiful class kits that came packaged in little hatboxes tied with ribbon and topped with a flowering clothespin. Each kit was filled with all of the clothespin doll basics and then Robert prepared a special materials tree loaded with new and vintage goodies - millinery flowers, miniscule flower pots and baskets, old cake toppers, tiny birds… And everything was put to good use - look at the amazing dolls! Such a creative bunch!  June 11, 2008MDG Artist Profiles: Kate and Barret Roebuck Roebuck Studio is the brilliant collaboration of husband and wife team Kate and Barret Roebuck, both talented designers and landscape architects. We so enjoy working with this creative team and love that their furniture is not only beautiful, functional, affordable, and durable but also created in an environmentally responsible way. Based in historic Chelsea, Michigan, the Roebucks manufacture locally, buy materials from local sources and have complete control over the fabrication process. As part of our on-going series of mini artist profiles, we appreciate Kate and Barret taking the time to offer us a glimpse into their life. Thanks you two!
 1. Were you interested in arts and crafts as a kid? What’s the first thing you remember creating? Of course there were the popsicle stick buildings, Christmas ornaments with white cotton for the beard, but I think the thing that stands out most to me is building birdhouses with my mom, who is a serious bird watcher. Kate has always been interested in the arts. Whether it was painting, drawing or sculpting. There was a school project where you had to design and build something from a book you had read. She chose to build the Swiss Family Robinson tree house out of pretzel sticks. 2. Tell us about your home life. We live in Chelsea, Michigan, which is near Ann Arbor, and about an hour away from Detroit. Visiting our small town is like stepping back in time; there are a couple stop lights, a beautiful main street, several barbershops, a few great restaurants, some galleries, and an excellent theater started by Jeff Daniels, (the actor from Dumb and Dumber and Gettysburg). Most of the housing stock here was built about 1900, we are restoring a working class Victorian from the 1880’s. We are currently teaching ourselves how to tile in the upstairs bathroom. 3. When and where do you craft/create/design? We have a small barn/carriage house behind our house that we use to build our furniture. Our workshop is on the second floor. It is a very utilitarian, functional, space with only the essentials. We also use one room of our home as a design studio/office. This is where we sketch our ideas and make scale models before heading out to the barn to do prototyping. Kate works as a Landscape Architect. She works for a firm in downtown Ann Arbor that specializes in park and campus design. 4. Did you collect anything as a kid? Do you collect anything now as an adult? As a kid I collected legos, tinker toys, matchbox cars. As adults, we collect modern furniture, and old house parts. 5. What were your favorite toy and your favorite book when you were a kid? I had a favorite glow worm. My favorite book was 2000 Leagues Under the Sea, or anything by Jules Verne. Kate’s favorite toy was her dollhouse that her grandfather made for her. Her favorite book was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It is such a heartfelt story showing how someone/something could care so much for another human being. 6. Who encourages you in your artistic pursuits? Who or what inspires you to continue creating? We encourage each other. Through our travels, our love for the outdoors and many visits to art museums and galleries, we continue to find art and design that provides inspiration for our own work. We enjoy other forms of art which we believe also challenges and inspire us in our design pursuits, Kate with her painting and pottery and I with my love of photography. A Vintage Baby Shower!Everyone you know expecting? Soon to be hosting a shower for your favorite infanticipating parents? Throw an event as special as your guests of honor! Join Robert on Saturday, June 28th and learn how to create spectacular vintage-style decorations: sewn crepe ruffled garlands, hanging vintage wrapping paper globes and a crepe paper stork centerpiece that will steal the show. A hands-on tutorial with gorgeous take-home kits will arm you with everything you need to recreate these crafts to fit your baby shower’s colors and theme. And making the deal even sweeter, we’ll be crafting in the dining room classroom of Sweetpeas’ new arts and crafts bungalow on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Call the shop to reserve your space! 310/490-0434.  June 10, 2008Clothespin Doll Class, This Saturday!A reminder for our friends in the Los Angeles area, this Saturday, June 14th is the ‘Little Laundress Workshop’ - Robert’s hands-on tutorial reworking the vintage craft of clothespin dolls. The take-home class kits are gorgeous as is the location in Sweetpeas’ new Venice home (see images further down in the post). There are a few remaining spots available, so if you’d like to join in from 11 - 2 for crafting and cupcakes, please call the store at 310/490-0434 to register. Open to adults and kids ages 8+!  Below are examples of clothespin dolls that Robert created and are the type of dolls that attendees will learn how to make.  This past Friday evening marked the grand opening of Sweetpeas new location on Abbott Kinney Blvd. in Venice, CA - an amazing and eclectic street with great shops, restaurants, books stores, design studios and coffee shops. Owner Mary Smilove scored one of the few remaining arts and crafts style bungalows for her craft and paper emporium, that now architecturally echoes her vintage flair and thoughtfully curated selection of goods. And we’re exceptionally excited about Sweetpeas’ new home as it will also serve as the location for Robert’s upcoming craft workshops! The bungalow dining room has been designated the official classroom and is the perfect scale for family style crafting around a big table. And something for you Southern California locals to keep in mind - Mary throws a brilliant party and part of her business is hosting events, so if you’re scouting an uber charming location for a baby/wedding shower, afternoon tea or crafty birthday party treat yourself to a Venice pilgrimage and pay a visit. 1507 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA 90291, temporary tel # 310/490-0434.  Powered by WordPress |
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